Demography

Micheál Martin’s pluralist approach is an upgrade to Sinn Féin’s ‘dummymandered’ single option future

| Readers 1870
People gathered around a table with a charcuterie board

Nationalism risks its own form of “dummymander”: reading the 2021 census as a countdown to unity, much as Texas Republicans redrew their maps on demographic assumptions and lost. The Taoiseach’s new body offers a stronger path, preparing for several futures and engaging every tradition, so that consent is earned rather than assumed.

#Census2011: The first bare bones of NI’s changing story…

| Readers 81

Ten years ago nothing was more eagerly awaited [than the collapse of Stormont? – Ed] than the announcement of the Census figures. Hyper optimism on the nationalist side suggested that the Protestant population might dip below 50% for the first time. The Census body saw that one coming and finessed the figures so that background became as important as any stated religion. I don’t think it’s putting too fine a point on it to say that many nationalist commentators were …

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